Gratian

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Gratian

(grā`shən), 359–83, Roman emperor of the West (375–83). At the death of his father, Valentinian IValentinian I, 321–75, Roman emperor of the West (364–75). He held high military rank under Julian and Jovian. After the death of Jovian, Valentinian was proclaimed emperor; he appointed his brother Valens coregent in the East......Click the link for more information., he accepted the army's election of his brother, Valentinian IIValentinian II,371?–392, Roman emperor of the West (375–92), son of Valentinian I. Upon the death of his father, he was proclaimed emperor with his brother Gratian as coregent. After the death (378) of Valens, Gratian made Theodosius I ruler in the East......Click the link for more information., as his colleague. Gratian took Britain, Gaul, and Spain as his own share of the empire and acted as guardian for Valentinian in Italy, Illyricum, and Africa. After the death of Valens (378), he made Theodosius ITheodosius Ior Theodosius the Great,346?–395, Roman emperor of the East (379–95) and emperor of the West (394–95), son of Theodosius, the general of Valentinian I......Click the link for more information. emperor of the East. Gratian fought successfully against the barbarians. He appointed St. AmbroseAmbrose, Saint, 340?–397, bishop of Milan, Doctor of the Church, b. Trier, of Christian parents. Educated at Rome, he became (c.372) governor of Liguria and Aemilia—with the capital at Milan......Click the link for more information. as an adviser and vigorously attacked paganism, ordering the removal of the altar of Victory from the senate house and the confiscation of the revenues of the vestal virgins and refusing the title pontifex maximus. Toward the end of his reign he neglected public affairs for hunting. In 383 he was assassinated by the followers of Maximus.

Gratian,

fl. 1140, Italian legal scholar, founder of the science of canon lawcanon law,in the Roman Catholic Church, the body of law based on the legislation of the councils (both ecumenical and local) and the popes, as well as the bishops (for diocesan matters)......Click the link for more information.. Almost nothing is known of his life beyond the fact that he was a monk, almost certainly Camaldolite, and that he taught at the convent of saints Felix and Nabor (San Felice) in Bologna. He was apparently very learned in scholasticism and Roman law. His great work, commonly known as the Decretum, appeared c.1140. It is a synthesis of church law, divided into three parts: the first deals with sources and principles of canon law and with ecclesiastical persons; the second, with ecclesiastical jurisdiction and property and to some extent with marriage and penance; the third, with sacraments and liturgy. Gratian, by his method, makes the compilation a systematic treatise; his commentaries, the dicta Gratiani, make up a large part of the work. The Decretum was used by the later popes and became the kernel of the Corpus juris canonici.

Bibliography

See study by S. Chodorow (1972).

Gratian

Latin name Flavius Gratianus. 359--383 ad, Roman emperor (367--383): ruled with his father Valentinian I (367--375); ruled the Western Roman Empire with his brother Valentinian II (375-83); appointed Theodosius I emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire (379)

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